Self-Care at Home

Home care is effective in making the wart or warts go away. No matter what technique you use, warts will disappear 60%-70% of the time. Techniques may be done with or without medication.

The ultimate goal of the medical therapies (not the surgical treatments) is to get your body to recognize the wart as something foreign and to destroy it, much like the body destroys a cold virus.

Salicylic acid therapy

Salicylic acid is available by many different trade names at the drugstore. It comes both as a liquid to paint on the wart or as a plaster to be cut out and placed on the wart tissue.

The area with the wart should be soaked in warm water for five to 10 minutes. The wart should then be pared down with a razor. A simple plastic razor works fine for this, then throw it away. Do not shave far enough to make the wart bleed.

Apply the salicylic acid preparation to the wart tissue. Do not apply it to other skin because of salicylic acid's potential to injure normal tissue.

Follow directions on the package for how long to apply the acid.

Cryotherapy: Over-the-counter products to freeze the area of the wart using dimethyl ether and propane are available.

Follow package instructions exactly. Do not get the product on surrounding intact skin.

Other alternative therapies mentioned by some articles include heat treatments and even hypnosis.